Spiral
by Winged Senea
Summary: Soren had been raised by his father and the beginning of the war is about to start. He travels to Crimea with orders to capture the princess that has escaped, except things don't go as planned. Spoilers!
1. Chapter 1

Senea: Now it's my turn to see if I can write one of these fics. PyroManicNeko did a fantastic job on her True Prince one that it inspired me to try and get Soren into his prince title. This is kind of an experiment chapter to see if anyone likes it and what not. So enjoy.

Major spoilers here people. A lot of them. And major ones too. So don't read if you don't want to get spoiled.

Disclaimer: If anyone actually read these, say turtle. I own nothing, not even a turtle. Just 180 manga that have conquered my entire bookcase.

* * *

Daein Keep was busier then usual on the late winter morning. Soldiers were running around, shouts of the officers to their troops echoed throughout the halls. Though it would seem rather unusual for so many soldiers taking the entire keep, for this time, it was now the norm for the greater part of two weeks.

The shouts however, greatly annoyed one person who in the past couple of days, was either in the library or in the throne room discussing with the generals and king, strategies. The noise was sweeping through the large library doors, echoing in the large room that was vacant save for the books and him.

He sighed in frustration, slamming the book he had been reading shut, before grabbing another off of the table. The concentration he had in order to decipher the ancient language helped him forget the noise coming from the outside, but failed just as quickly when the large doors opened. The noise increased in volume.

The doors closed as quickly as they had been opened, so the young man continued to read the tome, a frown slowly growing on his face as he realized that he was about to be interrupted.

Shuffling of feet and small mumbling soon melded with the shouts in the hall as the owner of the two approached the reader in a fast pace. "Uweeeeee, where are you prince?" The voice asked through the archives, shuffling towards where he thought the prince would be. "Stop hiding now, prince, there is much work to be done. Weeee…"

Said prince did not look up from his book at the summons, not even when he felt the speaker was right beside him. He did not like being disturbed from his readings and normally ignored the person who tried to call him away. He felt the other growing impatient as he turned another page towards the end of the topic. After finishing off the last sentence, he closed the book and glanced up at the man, a cold bored look on his face.

"What is it, Izuka?" he asked bluntly, staring at him. He never did like the dark art user, ever since he was little. He had been his teacher of the anima and dark magic, but that did not make the prince hate him any less.

Ikzuka also did not take any liking to the boy. His teachings had been ordered upon him by the King and he had despised the prince to no end for his 'magical essence'.

"Ahem…Weeeeee…Well, your Highness," he began. "You are needed at the court right away. Your father, the King wishes to speak to you on some last minute matters."

The prince stood up from the desk he had been sitting at and placed the book back onto the table. "Understood." He replied, before walking to the doors and exiting the library. Izuka soon followed afterwards, keeping a few strides away from him.

On their way to the destination, only a few high ranked officers saluted him. Many of the others looked on in confusion as to why their superiors were greeting the young man as if he were important.

Besides the high ranked in the military and a few senators, very few people knew of the existence of the Daein prince. Even the neighboring countries royalty knew nothing of him. He didn't mind at all, nor did he really care. His duty was to merely create sound strategies for his father on anything that he needed, and to use his skills to benefit the king. Nothing else.

He opened the doors of the room and walked inside, Izuka following and closing the doors. Inside were the Four Riders, the King himself, several other generals, and Petrine's tactician, Ena. They all turned their attention to the newcomers as they walked towards the table. The prince sat down beside Bryce while Izuka stood a ways off, near the king's side. This was going to be the final meeting before they executed their plan. Ashnard wanted to take over Crimea, and with Soren's help, it had been fully organized and was ready to deploy at the King's order.

In a matter of days, they would set out and conquer their neighboring country, and would start a new war that would eventually engulf the entire continent.

* * *

They had reached the Crimean capital in no time, and in mere days, the capital had fallen by the hands of the Daein king. He had slain the royal king and queen of Crimea, the prince of Crimea has still fighting on the main lines, but not for long.

That was of no concern to Soren, however, he had been given an order to attack what was left of the royal family, the princess of Crimea. Somehow she had managed to escape from his father with a handful of the Imperial Guard, and according to their information, were heading towards Gallia on the Capital Way.

"Prince Daein?" he looked over to see the commander of the soldiers, Maijin, walk up towards him, which was fairly hard since he had so much armor on, while the mage only wore robes.

"How many times must I say this, Maijin, you must never refer to me as the prince here." Soren snapped, annoyed at the new company. Though he was of smaller rank then most commanders, he had to state his position alongside with Ashnard in order to come along on this endeavor, as were the king's orders.

"M-my apologies your…I mean, sir." Maijin stammered. "We have reports that we are coming close to the royal knights who hold the Crimean princess."

"Good." He replied, not much in the mood for discussing this with him. "Send your cavalry out to meet them immediately so we can distract them until the main force can arrive. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. I will go and inform the men." He said, waving to one of the soldiers to relay the instructions. Soon, the knights were galloping ahead of the rest of the force and making their way towards the Crimean soldiers.

Minutes later, the main force caught up with the rest of the troops and joined the fray as well. Already both sides had taken a few loses. And now that the rest of the troops came in, the Crimeans were looking for a way to retreat.

Soren ignored the main battle and began searching for his target. It was quite easy to find too. One of the knights was carrying someone on their horse, they were quite close to the forest edge and it seemed that the person was trying to get off. They had an orange dress on with long green hair. He had found who he was looking for.

Rushing over there as quickly as he could, he drew a wind tome from his sleeve and began to chant the spell he would unleash on them. The knight noticed the boy moving towards him and began to prepare his lance for the attack. The princess seemed to shout something to him as he moved towards the mage, but the prince ignored it and focused only on bringing down the paladin.

Before the knight had time to attack with his lance, Soren finished his spell and attacked him with the wind magic. In doing so, the horse bucked and the knight, for a spilt second, lost control over his horse, leaving his lance unattended. Soren took the opportunity to do another spell, this time in closer range. The spell set off and made the horse go unbalanced even further, causing the knight and horse to fall on their sides, ine of the knights leg getting caught under his steed.

"Geoffrey!" Soren took his attention away from the paladin and found the princess running over to them, a look of fear and concern etched into her delicate face.

"No! Princess! Stay back!" the knight called out in pain, trying to wretch himself free from the weight of his horse. At those words, the princess stopped short of only a few feet of the two, staring at the prince in fear, realizing what she had done.

"So, you're Princess Crimea." Soren stated, unsheathing a dagger from his back, staring at the princess with indifference. He had only heard about her a few times in his life, saying that she was born after an heir was decided, so they kept her identity secret, except to the royal families of the countries in case of anything dire happening. Although it was similar to his own case, he knew that if she were to live, it would only mean trouble in the end for his king's plans to rule over Crimea.

The girl made a noise and began to back away, only to trip on her flowing dress and fall on the ground. Soren wondered if she was capable of doing anything harmful to Daein, or anyone else by the way she looked and seemed to act. She was stupid or naïve and seemed to care too much about the soldiers protecting her. She should have been concerned for her own safety and not for the knights'. If she had, then they probably would've had a harder time tracking her down.

Soren began to walk over to her as she tried to get back up off the ground and he noticed tears in her eyes. He felt like he was about to kill a helpless rabbit that was caught in a snare, but he didn't care, what had to be done had to be done. He was about to deliver the blow when something perked his senses, the wind shifted unnaturally to his left and he leapt away from the princess just in time to see an arrow fly where his head was, hitting a tree instead. He looked to where it came from to see a small group of people coming out of the woods, no more then nine of them. The prince noticed they all had weapons and realized they were mercenaries. All of a sudden, the battle was not going in their favor.

"Prince!" Soren cursed under his breath as he saw Maijin come up to him. He wasn't exactly the smartest commander in the bunch. "Prince Daein, are you alright?" he asked, receiving a glare from the prince, causing him to be silent. Both the knight and the princess stared at him, bewildered, but he chose to ignore the looks and focused on the newcomers.

"Hear me Daein soldiers!" A large man from the mercenaries bellowed, stepping in front of them. "I suggest that you retreat, or else you will feel the wraith of the Greil Mercenaries!" One of his soldiers, a man with long red haired tied in a ponytail, knocked another arrow from his quiver and aimed it at him, glaring at the boy. The others soon followed suit and were now ready to attack on command.

"You insolent cur!" Shouted Maijiin. "You will regret that decision with your life! How dare you harm our prince…"

"Maijin, be silent." Soren snapped, stepping in front of the commander and glaring at him in annoyance. "I will deal with you later." He then turned his attention towards the battlefield to see that all of the Crimean soldiers were killed it seemed. Their troops, although were many more in numbers, looked like they were wounded too much to begin another fight. He looked back at the mercenaries and saw that several of them looked quite young to be part of any group, but they were battle ready and not exhausted at all unlike his own troops, it made the mission become too dangerous to continue. "Maijin, we will have our forces retreat." He ordered, beginning to walk away.

"B-but, sir…"

"Now." That one quick word caused Maijin to nod and order the retreat as quickly as possible. The mercenaries let them retreat, knowing full well that they would be back with reinforcements to continue what they had set out for. Soren knew that they would be back as well, but they would have to survive entering the capital again without the princess in their possession first.

* * *

Senea: Alrighty...Yeah first chapter is finished! Well, more like the prologue and first chapter...YAY! This will be slightly off, as in it won't always be with the story of the game, many more battles and many more conversations will take place, but it won't stray too far from the game, there still will be in game script and whatnot, but I have a few new things to add to it.

So, what do you think? It's sort of my first full-fledged story with multiple chapters so please be nice when you review!

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	2. Chapter 2

Senea: Second chapter with plot! Story progress well with plot. Sorry for the late update, in case you haven't read my profile, my sister's computer died and that had all my stories on it. We're still trying to fix it so hopefully I'll recover what I lost.

Thank you so much for your great reviews! I'm glad that so many people are interested in this story! Updates will try and make em faster, this was suppose to come up last week but that stupid computer...ARG!

Well, here's the second chapter! Enjoy it! I don't own anything tough!

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"Prince?" Soren looked up from some papers he was researching to find Ena standing at the entrance way of his tent, a small tray of tea in her hands.

"Ena." He greeted back to her, giving her a questioning glance as to what she was doing here. Though they have only seen each other a few times over the years, both of them have a certain respect for one another as they helped with strategies. Although something seemed to bother the girl, she treated the prince quite kindly.

"I see you're still up." Ena stated, walking over to the desk and placing the tray of tea on the edge. "I brought some tea."

"Thank you." He responded, sounding not at all thankful to her. It was the evening and he hated being disturbed from his research and reports. Especially for a cup of tea. He found it calming to listen to the silence of the camp.

Ena brushed off the cold thanks and poured the prince a cup, she placed it beside him and took a glance up at his face, seeing in the faint light a large bruise forming just under his eye. She wondered just how hard the king had to hit his son for something like that to form. Shaking her head from those thoughts, she glanced at what the young prince was doing with those reports. "Do you think we'll be able to get them at the fort?"

Soren looked at her oddly before taking his tea and sipping it a bit before placing it back down. "Dakova is engaging them right now, but I doubt that will stop. They won't give her up without a fight, I think. Forcing the mercenaries to the fort with Dakova's remaining forces as well as some of our men hereis our best chance of getting rid of the sell swords and retrieving the princess." he explained for what seemed like the twentieth time that day. Although he had been talking to the stubborn General Petrine who never trusted him with doing anything, but with some convincing by Ena, they were able to make the plan work for the lance wielder.

"Do you think that they will fall for it though?" The girl asked. Her information on the mercenaries was little to none, and only the information that she had gotten from the prince allowed her to draw any conclusions about them.

"Judging from the age of most of the people, they might have siblings or families. Adding in the fact that they have the princess and a wounded soldier to worry about, they won't get into any unnecessary fighting unless forced. And when they do, they'll need to protect the ones that cannot fight. So, they would have no other choice but to think that they have an advantage by coming here." Soren said to the girl.

She nodded in understanding, and silence fell on the two again. After a moment, she spoke up, wanting to talk about a topic that had been bothering her. "Do you know the reason as to why the Black Knight showed up this evening?" she asked, uncertainty and annoyance were in her voice.

Soren thought for moment, recalling the knight appearing at their camp and wanting to aid in their effort to reclaim the princess, as per the King's orders. Another on of the Four Riders showing up for one measely person didn't add up to the mage. He felt that he was here for a different reason but could not figure out why his father sent him. "Although he said that he was ordered to help, I highly doubt that that is his true motive. Something else might be up." He concluded. Both of them had their fair amount of dislikes with the knight, many people did, no matter how many victories the Black Knight brought about for them.

"It does seem that way." Ena agreed. "Perhaps we will find out once we are successful." She then gave a small bow to the prince. "By your leave, prince. I must be going. Please, rest well." He nodded his head and she left his tent, leaving him to his thoughts.

Soren took another sip of his tea before glancing at the book he was reading before he was interrupted. Although she said to rest well, the prince highly doubted that he would go to sleep for another couple of hours. Tomorrow was going to be a day in which he prayed that he was successful. Failure twice never looked good in any Daein soldiers eyes, especially the king's.

* * *

Word from the other troops finally reached General Petrine; the Black Knight and Soren were waiting in one of the smaller rooms of the castle. The mercenaries were being trapped and led through the castle to them, just as planned. Petrine then ordered her troops to get ready for the attack on them the moment the doors closed, and then rode out to get ready herself, leaving the prince with the knight.

"It seems that your plan has worked perfectly young prince." The Black Knight said to Soren. "The princess will be in our custody soon and then, there will be no further disruptions for the King to worry about. Crimea is now Daein's."

Soren merely nodded his response, wondering just what would be the next step in his father's plan. He had a feeling that Gallia would soon become the next target, perhaps an alliance with the human country Begnion, against the sub-humans. Would his father really want to cause the entire continent to go to war? Would he want to wipe out all sub-humans?

The opening of the door interrupted his thoughts as a Daein soldier walked over to them, saluted and went at ease. "The mercenaries have been captured and the princess is in our custody." The soldier reported, a smile on his face for the victory that they had brought for their home country.

"Good work. I will be there shortly." The Black Knight responded, dismissing the soldier. As he left, the knight turned towards the young mage. "This is a great victory for Daein, your Highness." He said, his voice muffled and distorted by his helmet.

Soren stood and began walking towards the door. He was faintly aware of metal clashing against metal from the other side. The mercenaries were still trying to fight their way through. He gave it no thought as he continued to walk. "Shall we go and see, Black Knight?" He asked, turning to look behind him and stopped, noticing that the general had unsheathed his blade. Something inside of the mage told him that it wasn't a good sign to see and to keep his distance.

The Black Knight slowly began to walk towards the prince, the blade flashing against the small amount of light that was in the room. "I will be seeing this by myself, prince. But," he continued, slowly raising his blade. "unfortunately for you, you will never leave this room."

Soren felt himself back away from the knight and glanced quickly over to the door. He wasn't even halfway there. Even if he ran, the Black Knight was quite fast for his size and could out run him before he got there. His magic wasn't as nearly as strong to scratch his armor either. What was going on?

"Do not blame me, prince." Soren turned back his attention to him as he spoke, still trying to figure out a way to escape. "Your father, the king had given me this order for when we capture the princess." The knight said to an unspoken question. "'Get rid of the boy, I have no further use for him.' were his words to me, and I must obey with this order."

Soren stared at the Black Knight as he approached even closer. It seemed that Ashnard wanted him dead, and Soren could see why. No danger of succession or of getting in his way anymore. His use had finally run dry with his own plan to capture the princess. Nothing was left for him to do. Even if he did run through that door, Soren felt quite unsure of what to do next. Running away didn't seem much of an option to him anymore.

The general was now in striking distance of the mage and he stopped, readying his blade as he did. "Do you have any final words?" He asked, watching as he saw the prince accept his death.

Soren only thought for a second before shaking his head. "I doubt anyone would want to hear anything of what I have to say to them, no."

"I see. Then farewell, prince of Daein. And forgive me." The Black Knight said, positioning his sword to strike and slashing into the mages chest, making it protrude from the other side. It lasted there for a few seconds before the general removed it from his target, sliding it out of Soren's body before letting it rest by his side, blood dripping onto the floor.

Soren stumbled as his eyesight blurred and he felt himself fall to his knees. Blood began to fill his mouth and he coughed. He vaguely heard the Black Knight backing away and he glanced up to see the blurry image of the knight, before it started to disappear completely. He hit his head hard as he finally fell completely but he was unaware of it, instead he tried to focus on the strange noises he was beginning to hear, though faintly. It sounded like wood cracking and voices, along with more metal. He didn't care anymore as he closed his eyes and fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Senea: I think I just killed Soren...or did I? Course not, he wouldn't die if a nuclear holocaust came by. Twice! ...Yeah. So, tell me what you think please! Leave a review when you get the chance. Once again sorry for the late update! Thrid chapter will be faster!


	3. Chapter 3

Senea: I have absolutely no concept of time. I'm already in my third week of school and I have a laptop AND a month ago I was in Montreal for two weeks...WHERE DID ALL THE TIME GO!! Seriously people, yell at me, I deserve it. Truly sorry about not updating, I will actually have this chapter up and another up next week I swear to the almighty Soren himself okay? So I cannot break that promise without getting sliced and diced. Anyways, here's the third chapter and enjoy it.

Disclaimer: ...Are you kidding me? NO!

* * *

Soren stumbled as he tripped on a root that was on the trail. He managed to regain his balance after a few of steps and continued on with the rest of the group.

"You alright there, Soren?" He looked up and noticed that Ike was beside him, a concerned look on his face.

"Fine..." he responded, continuing to walk through the thick Gallian forest.

"Alright then..." Ike said, keeping to the mage's side.

Soren grumbled under his breath but didn't say anything more, not wanting to talk to the young swordsman.

He had woken up two days ago to find himself alive and in the enemy's camp. The commander of the mercenaries, Greil, questioned him along with the deputy commander, Titania, the princess and her Knight. Luckily for him, Elincia and Geoffrey didn't hear anything of the conversation that he had had with Maijin, so his identity was still unknown to the group. After coming up with a story that sounded reasonable to his situation, Greil let the Crimean Princess decide his fate. Geoffrey had insisted on killing him while Elincia believed that he should be kept alive. Once again, luck was on the prince's side and they decided to spare his life. Greil then asked him if he would like to join them, and Soren agreed, feeling that it would be the best for now.

Although he had been accepted in the mercenaries, the mage found himself being guarded be the commander's son, Ike and was ostracized by the others. No one really trusted him and he couldn't blame them. He had already lied to them and had tried to kill their employer. Ike, on the other hand, didn't seem to care that he was a former Daein soldier and was as friendly towards him as he seemed to be with everyone else.

A sharp pain ran up his side and he winced, frowning in annoyance at the injury. Although he was alive, almost every time he moved, there was pain where the Black Knight had stabbed him. Rhys had said it would go away, eventually. Soren realized that with just a heal staff, it would take longer, especially since he was moving around only after a short while of recovering. The group didn't seem to have the luxury of waiting or resting when Daein soldiers were on their heels.

"Blazes, why does it have to be so blamed humid?" Gatrie, the armoured lancer whined, dragging his feet and lance. "If we weren't being chased, I'd strip off this armor here and now!"

Though he seemed to be the only one complaining, the heat was clearly affecting the group. Mostly everyone was sweaty and tired looking; even the commander seemed to slow down in the heat.

"Then I'm almost glad that we ARE being pursued." Titania said jokingly, smiling at the soldier. "I suppose you'll have to grin and bear it."

"Dense forests such as these are not made for us delicate humans." Shinon spat out. "The sub-humans love 'em, though."

"These...sub-humans..." Ike said, looking confused. "Are they really so different from us?" Soren looked at him oddly. Even the smallest child knew what a sub-human was in Daein. He thought that since they were allies they would know more than his people did.

"Looks like you know even less than I gave you credit for, Ike, my boy." The sniper jeered. "They're a hairy bunch, I'll tell you. And ugly as sin, too. Their faces are all fangs and whisker. Their claws are like daggers, razor sharp and deadly. And even though they can speak our language, they're beasts through and through. Savages, every one."

Ike still looked confused to the explanation, but Shinon seemed to only know that much about them. Soren took the chance to clarify it, using his own knowledge about them. "There are three types of sub-humans, although they are traditionally called laguz." He began, getting Ike's and a few others attention. "There are the beast tribe, the bird tribe and the dragon tribe. The beast tribe has those qualities that Shinon told you about, they are also the ones we will be meeting. Each tribe has different physical traits."

"Ha! Who knew a Daein would know anything about those beasts." Shinon said.

"Why's that?" Ike asked, looking from the sniper to the mage.

"Normally, Daein soldiers and sometimes citizens participate in capturing and killing sub-humans." Soren explained casually, not mentioning what else he was known for. "We have to know about our enemy in order to capture them easily."

"That sounds horrible!" The princess decided to join in the conversation then. "How could you hunt them down like common game?" Many of the others looked disgusted as well.

Soren shrugged, before glancing at Elincia dully. "That's what Daein does. We believe that it's the best thing to do, so that's what we do."

"Alright, everyone, hold it!" Greil interrupted before anyone could say anything on the subject. "We're nearing the edge of the forest, combat formations!"

 "Do you really think they'll come this far for the princess, Commander?" Titania asked, readying her horse. "I believe so, Titania. Either way, we'd be better off prepared than not." Greil concluded. After a few moments of everyone getting ready, the commander was asking Shinon and Titania for advice on a plan of action. And, judging from the arguing, it wasn't going very well. Grabbing his wind tome from his bag, he walked over to the three. "May I make a suggestion? The three stopped and turned to the mage. "Do you have something in mind, Soren? Greil asked, curious to what he was thinking. "I do." He stated. "There shouldn't be that many focussing here so what I suggest is have a diversion group that will engage the enemy while the remaining forces with the princess are to escort her safely to Gallia's border with only minor skirmishes." "You'd have us spilt up our attack force?" Oscar asked, joining in. "Yes, having a plan like this will unlikely get us caught between an ambush and the pursuing forces. We can't both attack the soldiers while defending the people who cannot fight. It's better then nothing." Greil thought for a moment before nodding. "Sounds like a plan Soren. We'll use it." "You're not going to believe this, are you Commander? He could be leading us into a trap!" Shinon said, glaring at the young mage who glared right back at him. "It's the best plan we have, Shinon. And besides, we have to trust him sooner or later." Greil said, ending their conversation. "Shinon and Gatrie, you'll come with me as the distraction force and the rest of you will be the main force." Everyone nodded in understanding, their weapons at ready. "Now remember, you've got only one life. I don't want any of you dying on me. In times like these, it matters not what our blood ties are. We are family. If you don't want to cause your family any grief, then live!" Soren stared blankly at the man, hearing quite possibly the corniest speech he has ever heard, though it seemed to have bolstered morale. "Ike, you're in charge." Greil continued, already walking towards the east. "Titania will advise you. We'll meet back on the other side of the border. Let's go!" The three warriors walked off as the rest of the group headed towards the borders. Upon reaching it, Soren realized that he had been wrong, spotting more soldiers than he thought would've been dispatched. Petrine wasn't holding anything back anymore. 

"Do we rethink our strategy?" Ike asked, sounding a bit nervous about the numbers against them.

"No." Soren stated. "We've already split up..." He glanced quickly at their surroundings. "The forest goes to the edge of the bridge we could go there and cause a surprise attack. Then, when they're busy, the princess could use the other bridge to cross over and get to the border."

"Alright." Ike said, turning to face Elincia, Geoffrey, Mist and Rolf. "You guys will have to sneak by...Geoffrey, if anyone notices you, you'll be their last defence, can you handle that?"

The paladin nodded. "Yes, I will guarantee their safety." Even though he was still injured, it seemed he was still a knight through and through.

"Good. Everyone, let's move out!" At those words, Geoffrey began to escort Mist, Rolf and Elincia to the bridge while everyone else slowly made their way to the other bridge, stumbling along the fallen trees and thick foliage.

"Soren, you should have gone with the others. You're not fully recovered." Ike warned quietly when the mage caught up with him.

"I'll be able to hold on, you need as many people as you can...Besides," Soren explained calmly, walking over another root. "I don't believe Geoffrey would approve of me being anywhere near Princess Elincia. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Good point..." Ike mumbled, unsheathing his sword as they neared the edge of the forest. He waited quietly with Soren and Boyd as Oscar, Rhys, and Titania caught with them, the red haired paladin at the rear. Soren looked at their destination, seeing only two soldiers guarding the bridge and smirked. They could take out one and seriously injure the other before anyone else could get on the bridge, even is Titania stayed behind to guard their backs against the soldiers close behind them.

Ike gave the signal to begin and Boyd rushed out of the forest, Ike following with Soren and Oscar behind them. They managed to kill the two soldiers before any of the others could react, the bridge was already theirs. The troops seemed to be very unorganized, even the general of the troops didn't seem to notice they were there until they had already crossed the bridge, then he began shouting orders and sent a messenger to Petrine.

Soren almost regretted going with this group, after awhile it was hard to even raise his arm for the spell, and almost died because of it when an archer attacked him. Luckily Oscar came in and threw a javelin at the enemy to finish him off.

"You alright?" he asked, riding in front of the prince.

Soren nodded and watched as Boyd finished off the general. He didn't know who it was nor did he care. Ike soon began ordering them to go through the border to escape. Ike was the last to leave as he killed off the last soldier that tried to stop him.

The others made it back safely as well and Soren tuned out the happy reunion that everyone started. He clenched his injury in annoyance as it throbbed, telling him to stop fighting. He tried to ignore though, he had gotten much worse than this and wasn't going to let it bother him. His mind drifted away from it by wondering just how much longer he would be staying with the group. Residing in Gallia wasn't an option to him, nor was going back to Crimea, the new Daein occupation wasn't really going to allow him to live. His only chance was to go to Begnion once they finally delivered the enemy over to the sub-humans. The only question it seemed was how.

"Soren?" he snapped out of thoughts and turned to see Rhys standing in front of him, a new staff in his hands.

"Yes?"

"Princess Elincia gave me this mend staff, it heals better than my other one. Perhaps it will help with your injury better." Rhys explained.

"Ah...Perhaps." he mumbled. The priest smiled, lifting his staff to the wound and mumbled under his breath a few words. Soren felt the pain ease more than it had in a long time and he felt better. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome." Rhys said as he finished his work, smiling once again. "Just make sure you take it easy. I know you want to fight but only if necessary, alright?"

The mage nodded absentmindedly as he heard Ike voice a concern about where his father was. He looked around and saw that Ike was right, Greil and the others hadn't returned. He wandered over to the main group and noticed that Titania looked also slightly worried.

"I'm sure they couldn't be far. This is the Commander we're talking about." Titania said, trying to settle down the young swordsman.

"I know, but the mission won't be finished unless they've returned." Ike stated stubbornly, then turning to Elincia he said. "I'm sorry Princess, but we have to part here."

"O-oh?"

"We're going to find out comrades. Geoffrey, Mist and Rolf will go with you. We'll catch up with you as soon as we find them."

"Brother..." Mist said, wanting to argue with him.

"Mist, it's best if you and Rolf stay with the princess, alright?" Ike asked

"Okay."

Elincia, too, looked like she wanted to argue the decision, but merely nodded in understanding. "Alright, my lord Ike. But please, be safe..."

Ike nodded. "Don't worry, we will."

Senea: I am alive and my chapter is too short...sorry. I really couldn't write the part where Soren woke up, that would have messed things up big time. YAY Game Script. Once again, fourth chapter will be up by next week, or else you guys can kill me and someone else who updates faster can take over...If anyone cares please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Senea: YAY! ANOTHER UPDATE! This one is actually pretty big, biggest thing I've written actually...almost 3000 words woohoo! And it was even in a decent amount of time...unlike everything else !GetsSlapped! I know i know and I am sorry! School is such a bummer this year, except for my video game design course which i am throughly enjoying to the max. No one has mentioned Fire Emblem though which makes me sad. Everyone is all like WoW and Final Fantasy...What about Soren? Doesn't anyone care for him?? Apparently not. Anyways I am ramblin' so i'll let you guys go ahead and read it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Only the story everything in it, including dead soldier #12 is not mine. Nintendo has all these rights.

* * *

Readjusting his cloak and putting on his hood, Soren saw Titania take off the direction Greil had gone a short while before with General Petrine. Everyone else was still fighting off the last remnants of the soldiers, only the sage, priest and an armoured soldier were left, but not for very long. The mage vaguely wondered how long Greil would last with the Rider, not knowing much on the commander's strength, he found it hard to think that he would find her too difficult.

"Soren, head's up!" He snapped to attention just to see that the soldier was trying to throw a javelin his way, he sidestepped just in time to let it only nick his robe and hit the floor. He glared at the soldier and readied a fire spell, casting it on him with great speed, engulfing him in flames. Gatrie used the opportunity to finish off him, leaving the sage, Balmer, wide open for all sort of attacks.

Ike quickly finished him off as the new recruit, Mia, killed the priest, finally giving the mercenaries their first real victory since they had begun the journey.

"We have to find my father. Where did he go?" Ike said, sheathing his sword in haste.

Soren nodded in the direction Titania had gone in. "I believe they went that way."

"Sounds about right." Gatrie agreed, already moving in that direction, trying to get ahead before he had to start running again.

The rest of the mercenaries soon started to run towards the large doors that were echoing sounds of metal clashing against metal. Both Ike and Boyd opened the door and everyone ran inside to see the commander and Titania, with Petrine not so far off. She looked quite distressed over the fight and she even seemed to look worn out.

"Titania! Is my father..." Ike said as they neared the paladin.

"Don't worry." She interrupted, knowing what the swordsman was going to say. "Commander Greil's the better fighter. He'll be fine."

Soren looked over at the fight, surprised by how the outcome was proceeding. The Four Riders were the strongest of all of Daein and, though Petrine was the weakest of the four, Greil was dealing with her without so much as a strain. Just who was this man?

"Dog's breath!" Petrine spat out, clearly annoyed. She seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Soren was. "You look like a common sell sword, but you fight like a demon!"

Greil began to ready his axe again. "What's wrong? Ready to surrender?"

Petrine chuckled, lowering her lance slightly. "And admit defeat? Me? Don't be absurd..." She chuckled again, clearly amused by something that only she could see.

Before they had enough time to strike each other again, a soldier ran out of one of the open doors and Soren soon realized their mistake in coming here. What they had fought wasn't all of Petrine's men and there were going to be more of them soon, more then they could handle right now. She called out and even more soldiers lined up, even among the other doors. Boyd shouted in alarm and everyone turned to see that enemies were coming from the door they had just entered. They ran in the middle of the room, completely surrounded.

Petrine was clearly amused now. "So now, the tide has turned, hasn't it?" she laughed, readying her lance once again to strike. Following her lead, her solders began to ready their weapons as well, preparing to strike down the annoying mercenaries.

Soren couldn't help but force a laugh at their situation. He had been saved from death by the enemy, who brought him to his death once again. Irony was such a cruel thing. It didn't even seem to matter to wear his hood anymore. What was the point of hiding if they were going to kill you anyways. Maybe Petrine would actually do it right this time.

Before he had a chance to lift his arm, a huge roar echoed throughout the room and everyone turned silent, lowering their weapons in curiosity and fear. Soren cringed as he realized who, or really what, was coming to meet them.

"What was that?" He heard Ike ask but refused to answer the question.

Another large roar filled the room, this time, causing the floor to rumble slightly. The Daein soldiers all looked terrified at the sound, some even dropping their weapons. Many of them began to run away, fearing that they might be torn to shreds. The prince never thought he would see a more pathetic attempt at survival. Were all of Petrine's troops new recruits?

A scream came as a small handful of soldiers ran back into the room, and right behind them were no more than ten beast tribe sub-humans. Soren saw that the majority of them were tigers, with only a couple of cats, one of which seemed to be leading the pack.

Said cat walked up closer and transformed into his human form, he looked straight at Petrine, a small smile on his lips. "Attention, Daein soldiers!" he shouted, letting it echo through the room. "Leave this place at once! If you do not comply immediately, you will face Gallia's full strength!"

Petrine glared at the new addition, raising her lance again. "Threaten me all you like. It's not going to frighten me off. If I leave, His Majesty will have me executed. I'd rather die here in battle, with my honour intact."

Before the cat had anytime to repeat his words, or to order an attack, the opposite door opened again. Everyone turned and Soren felt his stomach clench as he saw the Black Knight walk through the door. He pulled on his hood even more to make it harder for him to see, but at least the knight might have a hard time telling who he was.

"Withdraw, General Petrine." He said, his voice muffled by the helmet. Soren frowned in confusion, normally that was a very strange and insane order for anyone to suggest, especially for one of the Four Riders. "As for your king, you have nothing to fear. I'll explain things to him. Take you men and go."

Petrine, irritated by the command, followed the order anyways. "Tsk! All troops, fall back!" she shouted to her troops, exiting the room finally. Soon, all that was left were the Greil mercenaries, the Gallians and the Black Knight.

The Black Knight turned his attention towards the mercenaries, looking over them for a second before stopping at Greil. The commander stared back at him, a curious look on his face.

"Hey!" The cat interrupted the two's staring contest, walking over to them. "Are you planning on taking us all on by yourself?"

The Black Knight said nothing to this, instead, he merely turned around and walked away. The tension soon left the room, without an enemy in sight and allies close at hand, the mercenaries finally got a chance to relax.

* * *

After exiting the castle, they were soon reunited with the princess and the others, all too happy to see that the rest were unharmed. The cat, known as Ranulf, began to talk to Greil, Ike and Elincia a distance away from the rest of the group, discussing some matter or other. Soon after, they parted, taking the princess and her guard to the king, leaving the mercenaries to go to an abandoned castle nearby until the king had given the large group leave to enter the castle. Fresh food and water was provided for them, luckily enough.

After a short meal, everyone walked off in different directions to get some sleep. Soren managed to find a small room with a cot and collapsed onto it, feeling slightly sore and still in pain, though he had better things to keep his mind on. His mind whirled with questions that didn't seem to add up anymore, wondering just what was going on with his homeland.

The Black Knight was still there, and following the soldiers further and further into Gallia, which seemed like suicide just for capturing the princess. Or were they pushing Gallia's hand to go to war with them. He wasn't even sure why the knight was still there. Did they know that he had been saved? Were they trying to find him again? It seemed that the prince's help in Ashanrd's whole scheme was only a small fraction of his real plan, one that only he knew the entirety of, leaving Soren to speculate about what was really happening.

A knock on the door interrupted the mage's thoughts as Greil walked in, a curious look on his face, along with determination. He walked in and sat down on a rickety chair that was in the room and looked at the prince. "Hello, Soren," he greeted, a small smile on his face. "How are you feeling?"

Soren looked at him oddly, wondering what the commander could want with him to act like he was. "Well enough, considering what's been happening the past few days..." he replied brusquely, waiting for the man to continue.

Greil nodded thoughtfully, taking in the mage's words. "Good to hear, you've been quite helpful to us, even though we used to be enemies. You have my thanks for that."

"Not at all. You had saved my life, I am merely repaying my debt."

"I see.." he trailed off, leaving a moment of silence hanging in the air before he continued. "Tell me Soren, what are you going to be doing after this? You are more then welcome to stay with the group."

Shocked by the question, it took a while before Soren thought of anything. "...What is it you plan to do afterwards, Commander?"

"Going back to Crimea is not much of an option for us right now. I think we'll stay in Gallia for now, until things begin to settle down and go back." Greil replied, waiting for the mage to give his.

Soren nodded slowly. "I...I can't stay in Gallia..." he said, frowning in thought. Staying with sub-humans was never something he wanted to do, nor did he ever want to accomplish. "After we arrive in the capital, I will wait a while before going trying to sneak into Begnion." He finished, looking at the commander for a reaction.

Greil nodded again. "I wish you would stay longer...but I won't push you to." he added.

Another wave of silence fell upon the two as the commander formed his next question for the mage. Soren waited patiently, knowing that Greil wanted some information that only he would know. Hopefully it was not trying to find the many loopholes in his story that could eventually lead them to his actual identity.

"Soren..." he began, a stern look on his face. "Do you have any idea who that Black Knight was?"

"Excuse me?" Soren asked, confused. That was one thing that he wasn't expecting to hear from the man.

"I just wanted to know if you had any information on him, that's all." Greil responded, not pushing any more details out.

Soren studied the commander, seeing if there was some sort of give away to why he wanted to know one of the Four Riders of Daein. But Greil was like a stone, not showing anything that could give the mage a guess. He closed his eyes in though as he began. "The Black Knight came in the army several years ago, right after Ashnard took the throne." He stated, opening his eyes again. "He walks around with his armor on at all times, so no one knows his true identity. In any case, though, he is a master of the sword and has brought many victories to Daein, almost single-handedly."

Greil sat in silence as he took in this information, Soren watched him intently as his eyes glazed over in thought. The chair creaking on the floor broke the silence as the commander stood up from it suddenly, causing the prince to jump slightly.

"Thank you for the information, Soren." He said. He walked over to the door before turning around to look at him. "You should get some rest, we have a big day tomorrow. And I still need you in top condition. Understand?"

He nodded and Greil smiled, before opening and closing the door, leaving the mage to his own thoughts again. Soren frowned at the door, trying to figure out what that conversation meant to the man but couldn't come up with anything plausible. He sighed in both frustration and tiredness and laid down on the cot, hoping he would be able to get some sleep.

* * *

Soren stirred, his eyes opening quickly as he felt something strange in the air. He sat up fast as well and looked around, seeing that he was still in the castle in Gallia. Glancing through the small window in his room, the mage noticed that it was going to start raining soon, especially from the mugginess that filled the air. Soren frowned, wondering if that was what caused him to wake up after only an hour or so of sleeping.

Not ready to go back to sleep, he stood up from his bed and walked out of the room, looking to see that the majority of the mercenaries seemed to be sleeping as well Not sure just what to do, Soren wandered over to the main room of the castle to stay there until he felt tired again.

He opened the door to see that the room was already occupied by someone. They looked up as the door opened and gave a small smile in greeting.

"Soren, what are you still dong up?" Titania asked, walking over to him. She was still in the majority of her armour and looked quite tired as well.

"...I think the humidity woke me up." Soren explained, knowing probably that wasn't the case. "And you?"

"Hm? Oh, I was looking for the commander to discuss our supplies but I couldn't find him. I looked for Ike to see if he knew where his father was but he seems to be missing as well." The paladin replied, looking slightly worried. "I was just going to take a quick look outside to see if I see them. Would you care to join me?"

Before he had time to respond, light illuminated the entire room and thunder echoed throughout it. Soren looked out one of the windows to notice that it was now raining pretty hard. A perfect time to be looking for someone, he thought grimly. Something else soon filled the air again, faintly though it was; Soren soon recognized the aura. He had felt that a few times before when the Black Knight used that rare powder of his to teleport. He clenched his jaw in thought, wondering if he should tell the woman about it. Though he didn't want to jump to any conclusions, he felt best to search for the two right away.

"Soren?" he whipped his head around, startled by Titania's voice as he was thinking.

"Y-yes?" he asked, calming down and being irritated at the same time.

She smiled. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a little thunder and lightning? You can stay here if you want then."

Soren's hand twitched slightly at the childish comment but said nothing about it. Instead, he walked straight for the door. "Are you coming?" he asked, his frown increasing in annoyance.

She nodded and the two of them walked out into the rain towards the entrance of the castle.

"Oh, wait. There they are!" Titania said over the rain, pointing towards the mouth of the forest. Soren looked over there and indeed saw two people that looked like the commander and his son walking over to where they were. As they got closer, the mage felt that there was something wrong, it looked like Ike was carrying Greil. After a moment, both fell to the ground, right at the start of the forest. He felt something cold in the pit of his stomach as he saw them. Titania seemed to have this thought as well as she started to run towards the two, Soren followed shortly afterwards.

"Commander!" Titania shouted when they caught up to them, she kneeled down to the older man and lifted him onto his back. Even with the rain and mud, the red of blood was clear on both his clothes and the ground.

Soren turned his attention to Ike to see that there was blood on him too, though whether or not it was his he couldn't tell. He noticed that he was still breathing and was just merely unconscious. Soren felt himself sigh with relief at that small good news before he heard Titania shouting at him.

"Soren! Go get Rhys! Right now!" she yelled, distress cracking her voice as she tried to bandage up Greil. Soren nodded at this before turning around and running towards the castle, knowing full well that one of those people was already dead. And he knew who had killed him. It looked like they were not going to have much sleep tonight.

* * *

Senea: Now what happened here I wonder? Hmmm... Right. It was really long, I kind of wanted to make it longer then I realized you guys would be missing out so I didn't. Now I am off to work on the others and to keep writing this thing too...Why does writing a story have to be so hard?? Nah, its fun, especially when people review! Which you all should. They actually energize me and make me want to type more. So, just that little extra incentive to leave that one little review that would brighten up my day. Consider it community service. Even though a lot of people aren't even reading this in Canada...international service then!

Ahem...Please and thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

Senea: Whew. School's finally over with and there' only a few more days until Christmas. So I thought I would update. Once again I am terribly sorry for not updating any faster. School, then exams, then extra hours of work, then the new Tales of Symphonia (Which wasn't that great :( ) so update have been terrible. I think I will be able to make on more chapter of this during the holidays, plus maybe make one or two more chapters for my other story. But I made this chapter super long for you guys so hopefully you'll enjoy. Quantity and hopefully quality.

Diclaimer: My dream is to make games similar to this, so that means I haven't created anything like Fire Emblem yet.

* * *

It was already late in the day at the castle, but it felt much longer for the mercenaries as none of them slept when Soren came back with the news of the commander's wellbeing. The majority of them had just come back from finishing with Greil's funeral, both Ike and Mist were still there and no one wanted to move them.

Ike hadn't given any information as to who did it, saying that he didn't know. Soren, on the other hand, knew perfectly well who killed the commander, though he wasn't going to tell anyone for the sake of keeping himself inconspicuous. Although he did feel a few of the others eyes on him when he came with the news, especially the red haired sniper who had constantly glared at him for the entire day.

The young mage walked over to the great hall of the castle, hearing that someone had come with some food for the mercenaries. He walked past one of the people that came from the merchant caravan but paid no attention them, he didn't like the woman at all for some reason and wanted nothing to do with her.

Before he had a chance to get within the doors, they opened and Shinon walked out of the room, looking absolutely furious at one thing or another. Soren tried to walk past him but the red sniper simply went into his path, glaring at the prince all the while.

"Excuse me..." Soren mumbled, frowning at him in annoyance as he tried to get past the man. Once again, he was blocked. Before he had a chance to say something else to the sniper, Shinon grabbed him by the front of his robes and pulled him closer, clearly angry.

"Do not think that for one second I'm going to believe you didn't have something to do with Commander Greil 's death. Not for one second!" He hissed out to the mage, his fist shaking as he gripped Soren's robe even tighter. "Now because of you, I have to deal with _him _as the new commander! I am not going to accept that. You should be put to blame for this, and I'll make sure you will!"

"Shinon?" Both of them turned to find Gatrie walking out of the door, in search for the sniper. Upon seeing them, his face went from confused to shock. "Shinon! What do you think you're doing?!" He walked as fast as he could towards them, as the sniper let go very slowly of Soren.

"Nothing…" He said, still glaring back at the mage, who glared right back at him. "Tch…Come on, Gatrie, let's get out of here…" With that, he walked away, still in a foul mood. Gatrie glanced over at Soren before walking to catch up with his friend, leaving the mage alone.

Soren arched an eyebrow as he flattened his robe, confused slightly to the whole ordeal. He wasn't sure about how he could've been of any help towards the commanders death, but the reason for the Black Knight having come to the Daein army had been to kill him, so in a way, he had been indirectly involved.

He turned towards the great hall once more as the other reason for Shinon's outburst came into his mind. He wondered who was going to be placed as the new commander that the sniper abhorred to no end. His mind came to the conclusion of Ike but found it ridiculous to let someone so new to the battlefield in command of the mercenaries. He walked towards the doors to see for himself who the actual new commander was.

* * *

Soren sighed quietly once again as he walked along the empty corridors to head nowhere in particular. Ike had been the one to receive the leadership of the mercenaries. And with that, their fighting force was reduced by two. Shinon and Gatrie left them, while the others were in slight support of the swordsman.

He came back to the great hall and opened the door to find that, once again, someone was already in it. Though he didn't hear the mage coming in, he approached him, curious to why he was up.

"Ike?" The commander turned and looked at the mage, a tired look on his face. He forced out a smile to him before returning to his normal stern look.

"Soren? What are you doing up?" Ike asked as Soren walked closer, sitting beside him.

He shrugged. "After all that's happen, it's hard to sleep." He stated indifferently, with a hint of tiredness in his voice. He hadn't slept since last night for those couple of hours and it was finally catching up with him. Even so, it was hard for him to fall asleep at this moment. The prince turned to look at Ike. "And what about you? You're the new commander so you need your rest."

Ike forced out another grim smile. "The same reason you're still up."

"Mm..."

The two fell silent and Soren realized that he never had talked with Ike, or anyone in the group, before for long or about anything that didn't involve information and such. He didn't even socialize very much at the castle either. Not that any of the people he knew there would actually want to talk to the young man about anything besides military matters that he was suppose to do. The mage soon found himself stumped as to what to do next, not sure what to talk about. Ike had just lost his father, yet Soren didn't know of anything that would help the swordsman feel any better. Though it probably would not have helped much.

"Soren?" Ike interrupted his internal dilemma and he looked back at him, waiting patiently for the rest. "What do you think about me being the commander? From what you've seen so far?"

Soren looked at him oddly. "Do you want the truth?"

Ike nodded. "Of course."

He thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "I believe that you're too inexperienced with fighting and commanding to be the leader of these mercenaries. It would have been better if Titania or a senior member of the group to take over until you got some more skill."

Ike cringed slightly. "Ouch. That was blunt." He smiled. "I guess I deserve that."

Soren continued, ignoring the comment. "Even though you are lacking as a leader, you do have people here to assist you, which will give you considerably more skill. And, everyone here has accepted you as being the new commander so there won't be many arguments on it again. You will be fine in a few more missions. After that, you might be on par with the majority of the commanders I've seen in Daein."

"Was that a compliment?" Ike asked jokingly. The mage's serious tone and cold eyes made everything he said seemed pretty serious.

"I suppose..." he responded quietly, before going silent. He had finished on the topic and was wondering if he should leave or not, feeling uncomfortable around the commander.

"You're going to help me, right?" Ike asked suddenly, glancing over at the mage again. It didn't seem the topic was over in his head.

"Excuse me?" Soren asked, arching one of his eyebrows in question.

"You know a lot about tactics and about Daein in general. And Titania can't do everything herself while she's teaching me..." Ike explained.

Soren frowned, his thoughts going back to Shinon's words. "Are you sure you trust me enough?"

"Huh? Why?" Ike asked, confused to where that came from.

"When Greil died, Shinon believed that I had something to do with it. I can't say that I blame him; I was just previously a Daein soldier. What if I was or am helping them? And what if I did help with your father's murder?" Soren asked casually, staring at Ike for the answers.

Ike blinked slowly, surprised by the self-accusation. "Well..." he started slowly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand, thinking of a response. "Because...I trust you." He stated simply, knowing that it was the truth.

"Huh?" It was Soren's turn to be surprised. Not only by the complete naive statement, but by the trust Ike had already placed on him. They had only known each other for a few days now, not enough to actually put much faith in one person, not that he believed anyways.

"If you wanted to, you could've betrayed us a number of times, without just killing my father. And how could you have helped in killing him? You were always supervised and it's not like you knew that he would go outside right there right? Plus," he added, his eyes turning into a deeper blue as the event went through his head once more. "it wasn't you who killed him."

Soren looked at the swordsman, astonished by the once again, naive and simple explanation. Ike's rather innocent conclusion made him wonder if he really had any leadership skills. His judgement on people might bring in an actual betrayer into the group without anyone realizing until it was too late. Something else the commander needed to learn, and quickly, before it got out of hand.

"So, will you do it?" Ike asked again after a moment, his eyes and voice pleading with the mage to agree.

The mage thought for a moment before sighing quietly in defeat. "...I'll help for as long as I can." Soren responded. He wanted to leave this group soon so that he might get a chance to go into Begnion, and leave this entire ordeal behind. Staying to help wasn't part of the plan, but at least it was something that would keep him occupied until the time arrived.

Ike smiled at his new staff officer, glad that he was going to get more help. "Great! Welcome abroad, Soren! I'll tell Titania first thing tomorrow."

"Hmm..."

With that thought finally leaving the young swordsman mind, Ike thought vigorously as once again he tried to come up with another topic to keep his mind from wandering. Soren was a hard person to talk to. Realizing this, he looked at the mage and found out he knew almost nothing about him. Curious to find out about something, anything, he spoke up. "So you have any parents, Soren? Wouldn't they be glad to know that you were alive?"

Soren became rigid at those words and frowned. "No." He stated stiffly, anger and annoyance evident in that one word.

"Sorry. I didn't mean—" Ike began quickly, taking the hint it wasn't up for discussion.

"It's fine." Soren replied, calming down slightly. It was a strange behaviour to such simple questions after all. "The soldiers would've said that I was either a traitor or was cut down by Crimea." He lied, trying to explain himself. "My...My father wouldn't care either way. And...I never knew my mother. So..." He almost laughed at himself. The entire thing sounded so forced it was pitiful. He had never called Ashnard his father. Saying the word sounded to foreign to him, even saying mother was more natural.

Ike didn't say anything, feeling it was too much of a sensitive subject to go into it further. Seeing Soren still agitated, the commander knew that he wasn't going to get anymore information of the Daein anytime soon. He stretched his arms, before standing up as well. "I think I'm going to go to bed, Soren. And I think you should do the same."

Soren merely nodded at the request and knowing full well that he wasn't going to go to bed anytime soon.

"And, Soren?" This made the mage turn, a quizzical look on his face.

"Yes, Commander?" he asked, wondering what else was on his mind.

Ike smiled once again, this time, one that wasn't so forced. "...Thanks."

"...For what? I didn't do anything." Soren stated, confused again about what goes through the swordsman's head.

"For talking with me, it helped a lot. So, thanks." He explained before walking out of the room, leaving the mage alone.

He stared at where Ike had been, trying to figure out what he meant. He sighed in annoyance when he couldn't come up with anything; he didn't think he would ever understand these mercenaries.

* * *

Soren woke up before dawn, as usual, and walked out of his room, heading for the great hall to see if anyone else was up. He had to talk to Titania about helping her out with the duties of the mercenaries. He also felt it a good idea to check with the merchant caravan that had joined them to see their weapons and how much they could store, and to buy a new tome or two since his wind tome was gone and the fire tome was soon joining it.

To his surprise, both Ike and Titania were awake and talking with each other. They both nodded their heads in greeting to the mage before returning to their conversation. Knowing he was not to disturb them, he wandered over to the side of the room and looked out a window, seeing that the sun was nowhere to be found, though there was some notice it had risen. The rain was still around from last night and showed no signs of stopping, clouding the sun's full appearance.

As Soren began to look over at the forest, something shiny caught his eye. He looked closer and saw it disappear, only to reappear a few feet away from before. The glint soon came from another place, this time, a clear piece of black armor walked out of the forest. Soren clenched his jaw before spinning around, addressing the commander.

"Ike," Soren said, interrupting their conversation. "I've got bad news! Look out the window!"

The urgency in his voice made both of them run over to where he was. As Ike looked to where he was showing, the rest of the mercenaries were in the room and followed suit, curious to what the news was. Daein soldiers were soon running out of the forest, beginning to surround the small castle.

"That's not what I think, is it?" Ike asked, praying that he was dreaming.

"What gives?" Boyd shouted, annoyed at the Daein's entrance. "We're inside Gallia's borders, aren't we? They must be out of their minds to pursue us this far!"

"If they've come this far, I'm sure getting out of here alive was never one of their priorities." Oscar said sadly.

Soren looked around, seeing that it looked rather hopeless for them. "We're in trouble." Soren stated. "They have us completely surrounded. We cannot escape."

"So many of them...and so few of us..." Titania trailed off. "It doesn't look good, does it?

Ike turned away from the window, determination evident on his face, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Doesn't matter. We have to fight. Greil Mercenaries, ready yourselves!"

All of the mercenaries looked almost relieved at the command. They all nodded and went off to gather their things and prepare for battle. With in only a few minutes, they were ready and waiting for orders.

"Soren," Titania said, pulling him aside. "I know this may seem strange, but...Can you come up with something? We need a reasonable strategy that will keep us alive. Can you do that?"

Soren thought for a moment before nodding. "I'll begin formulating a strategy immediately."

Titania smiled, thankful to the young man. "Thank you."

Soren nodded again as Ike ordered them to go outside. They soon filed out and were at the entrance to the castle.

"So, what's the plan, Soren?" Ike asked. The rest of the mercenaries looked over at the mage waiting for the orders.

Soren glanced around quickly at the three gates that they were to be attack at, noting the different types of soldiers at each point. "Titania, guard the left entrance, where the heavy armoured soldiers are. You defence is high enough to last against them while still being able to damage them. Oscar, you have the short spear and javelin so go to the central entrance, but don't go too far ahead or else if you're hurt, you won't be able to get healed. Rhys, stay in the middle so it will easier for you to heal everyone. Everyone else will take the right entrance, with one person behind to substitute if there is a problem. Alright?"

Everyone nodded as the orders were given and Ike made the command to start. They all went towards their designated positions and waited for the enemy to move. Soren went with Ike, Boyd and Mia to the widest entrance. Boyd and Ike went in the front, with Soren supporting them, and Mia remained behind him, ready to take over if necessary.

The battle at first, seemed rather hopeless to the so few mercenaries against the huge numbers of the Daein army, but soon, their numbers were slowly depleted, they didn't have many healers, especially ones guarded properly. Rhys was kept rather busy, especially with the occasional close call with a few riders as he tried to heal Oscar.

Soren himself was having trouble dodging one of the archers from shooting at him, right into his sword wound. He cringed in pain as he felt some of it reopen but tried to ignore it as he cast a wind spell on the archer. He was about to deal some damage to an annoying armoured soldier that Mia was having difficulty with, when a lightning bolt descended on him, killing him. He turned to the source and saw a female mage with light purple hair beside Ike, a thunder tome in her hand. Although she was shivering considerably, she seemed to be determined to stay and fight. Soren vaguely wondered where she had come from and why Ike had decided to use her but was interrupted when more soldiers came flooding in the two entrances, making more of a mess for them.

Ike ordered a retreat at that point, seeing that many of the people were becoming too exhausted, and made the mercenaries regroup in the castle. Slowly, they made their way to the entrance once again, still fighting off the pushing forces. Almost everyone from the group had managed to get in without too much trouble, leaving Titania, Soren and Ike at the entrance. All three were exhausted, the red paladin could barely lift her axe anymore while Ike looked as if he couldn't stand.

"Haa...haa... Ah... Blast! Not yet... Not yet... We will not fall!" Ike panted, lifting his sword once again as a soldier got near to them. He managed to dodge the attack and kill him, before another one took his place and jabbed the commander in his shoulder.

Soren glared at the enemy and cast another wind spell, barely strong enough to kill him. More soldiers were still coming though, and Soren felt quite numb from all of the fighting, he was beginning to get too tired to concentrate on the spells.

"Ike!" Soren turned to the castles entrance to see Mist running out of the castle, worried for him. "Brother!"

Ike turned around as well, and frowned at his sister. They seemed to argue for awhile before Ike allowed her to stay behind him. Another soldier came up then, and Soren readied himself to try and attack once again, both Ike and Titania were doing the same.

"So few soldiers, and yet you managed to defeat our general? You have fought well. But it all ends here. Prepare to die!" The soldier said, readying the rest of the troops to attack.

Before they had a chance to attack, screams were heard from the Daein troops, causing confusion within the rest of them. Soren saw two blurs, one of orange and one of blue, run literally through the Daein soldiers, ending at the one that had ordered their death. The orange cat swiftly attacked him while the blue tiger defeated the remainder of the troops. They had once again been saved by the sub-humans.

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Senea: WooHoo! We are getting somewhere! Next chapter they will meet with Caieghis or however you spell his name. Shinon's a meanie, I find it true that Soren can't really talk to people very well and Ilyana has showed up, though I don't think there wil be much of her...Anyways, please review this and tell me what you think. Feel free to yell at me for not updating sooner. It might kick me in gear. Thanks in advance!


	6. Chapter 6

WingedSenea: Hi y'all!!! ....If anyone is out there still. As hard as it is to forgive me there have been...issues in my life. In general: Computer, family, school, family, work, family, financial, family and did I mention family? I swear there is so much drama in here it's like House and CSI and all of those other drama shows. So inspiration has been off. Also...I got into a new anime in the last couple of months as school was ending so THAT took up some time....56 episodes in a week AND a changed avatar...yeah slight obssession now 7.7 Anyways, you probably don't want to hear me complain anymore and want to read so here it is.

It is short....But it will help me write faster now that I have the juices flowing again.

Disclaimer: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....no.

* * *

Soren sighed heavily, looking through the rest of the paperwork that somehow he had come to being in charge of. As much as he liked to help these mercenaries defeat his home country and his father along with it, he had never realized they were merely going to give him all of this work to do.

The mage rubbed his eyes with two of his fingers, using his other hand to place down the pen he was holding onto the small table in his room. There was no desk in the spacious room he had been given in the palace and wondered vaguely if the beasts even had paperwork.

It was only their second day in the Gallian palace and already they were getting to leave tomorrow. With some added new recruits to the mercenaries, they arrived with only one skirmish with the Daein army after the two laguz guides had saved them from their last mission.

He cringed in thought at their meeting which had gone less then smoothly.

* * *

_Ike led the two laguz into the castle after they had cleared the rest of the Daein soldiers out of the area. Soren watched as Mist trailed behind her brother, a frightened look on her face as she looked at the large blue tiger. He himself was in a corner of the main hall getting healed by Rhys along with Oscar and Mia, the knight with a javelin wound on his leg while the myrmidon had an arrow injury on her sword arm. The mage watched carefully as they stopped in the middle and began talking to Ike._

_At first everything seemed to go well, the blue tiger even was nice to Ike for the first part of the conversation. They had been sent by Ranulf and the king of Gallia to escort them to the palace. But then the orange cat, by the name of Lethe, snapped at him and then started to shout out at Ike, even when Ike was trying to calm her down and explain._

_Soren stood from where he was, finished with his healing and walked over to the three, about to step in and give a piece of his own mind. He hated it when sub-humans tried to seem superior to them._

_"You know no name for us?" Lethe snapped at Ike, glaring at him for what he had just said. "Are we really so little to you human? You, who forced us into slavery? How easily you forget. But we laguz! We remember. We remember how we have suffered at your hands. The king can say whatever he likes, I will not trust you. I warn you now…never speak to me in such a way!"_

_"Lethe…" The blue tiger, Mordecai, warned, trying to calm down his friend._

_"What's your point?"Soren said, walking into the conversation, glaring at the two newcomers. Both of them turned to face the mage, Ike gave him a questioning look that he ignored. "Did you come all this way to complain to us?" he chuckled softly at them. "…Typical sub-humans."_

_"Scum!" Lethe growled out angrily, her tail flicking rapidly as she snapped her attention over to the prince. "Those who use that name are enemies of Gallia!"_

_"Grr, grraa, sub-human…Enemy…He is enemy…" The tiger growled out, a frown appearing on his face as he stared at the smaller one._

_"You think you're humans? The only thing human about you is your conceit! You filthy, hairy sub-human!" Soren spat out angrily, hatred dripping from his words. Ike stared back in shock at him, wondering how much the Daein actually hated the beasts._

_Mordecai roared furiously, frightening some of the mercenaries as he did so. He got closer to Soren and transformed into his animal form, his tail slowly moving, waiting to strike, his claws out._

_"Mordecai! Kill him!!" Lethe ordered, pointing at Soren. Her ears were back and her tail flicked vigorously, wanting to see him dead._

_Soren got ready for the attack, knowing full well what to do. He wanted to see the beast dead for trying to seem superior over them. He hated them; they were bloodthirsty savages that didn't deserve to live. He saw Mordecai running faster as he lunged for the mage. Soren was ready and began to cast a spell before a blur passed by to the right of him, knocking his concentration off slightly, going in front of him. He saw as Ike blocked the attack from the massive tiger, getting hit in the process._

_"Ike!" He heard himself shout, running over to the commander, to check to see if he was alright._

_"Ow…" Ike groaned, holding his shoulder which was slowly turning red._

_"What?" Lethe said, stunned as well by Ike defended the small mage._

_"I…Ike…" Mordecai said, transforming back into his half-beorc state. He looked sad at hitting the swordsman, concern in his voice. "…Ike, I'm sorry…I have hurt you…I did not intend to hurt you."_

_"Mordecai, this injury is nothing. I'm fine." Ike said under clenched teeth, taking the pain in stride. He smiled at the beast, forgiving him._

_Soren glared at the sub-human, running past Ike and stopping only a few feet away from him. He had hurt Ike and he wasn't going to stand by it. They had to be taken care of. He finished casting his spell and looked at his enemy. "You're nothing but a beast!" He shouted, raising his arm to attack the now defenseless tiger._

_"Soren! Stand down!" A hand grabbed his arm and pulled it to his side, stopping the spell in its tracks. He looked to find that Ike had grabbed it, and was the one who had shouted the order. Soren frowned at him, confused to why he was being stopped from killing the sub-human._

_"Why did you stop me?" Soren demanded, turning to face the commander. He realized that he was breathing heavily. "He hurt you! He could have killed you! We can't let them get away—"_

_Ike raised his hand, silencing the mage. "If you hadn't provoked him, none of this would have happened. Right?" He asked kindly and yet sternly._

_"But…" he stumbled, baffled by his words. "I only…I'm sorry…" He grumbled, yanking his arm free from the strong grip, not looking at Ike or the others. With that, he turned and walked straight out of the room, not wanting to be there any longer._

* * *

After he had closed the door and still now, the mage was confused. The sub-humans were monsters that needed to be dealt with properly. He had gone on many beast hunts with Daein generals and saw for himself how they were. He even saw Izuka perform those experiments on them so that even if they were beasts, they could be of some use to Daein.

Yet Ike and it seemed the mercenaries, were not willing to call them beasts, and treated them as if they were equals. Was it because they were from Crimea? Or that they served under the princess? He lifted his hand to his forehead wiping off some sweat that had appeared in this heat, still confused by the treatment they had given the newcomers. He didn't like it, not one bit. No matter how much Ike or the others would tell him otherwise, he felt he would never trust those hairy beasts, nor were they meant to be trusted.

To make matters worse, now he was surrounded by them wherever he went. Luckily, many of them ignored him as he did to them and hid in his room as much as possible.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and he turned from his seat to look at it. The door opened slowly and a head popped in, bright blue eyes scanning the room before they rested on the mage.

"Ah, Soren! Here's where you've been!" Mist exclaimed happily, coming into the room. She was holding her healing staff that she had used in the previous battle.

"Mist." He greeted neutrally, blinking in slight surprise to her. "What do you want?"

She stopped when she reached arms length of the other, looking slightly nervous. "Um...Well..." She held out her staff. "I was wondering if I could get a new one?" she asked.

He looked at the staff and then to her. "Did you finish the staff already?"

She titled her head downwards in slight embarrassment. "It's almost finish." she corrected stubbornly, almost pouting. "And I don't want to ask Rhys for one of his..."

He blinked once at her before turning back towards his makeshift desk and pulled out his inventory list and the pen he had just set down. "One heal and two mend alright?"

"H-huh?" She looked up at him, slightly confused. She had only wanted one staff, did she really need that many?

He began to right in the order, not looking at the new cleric. "Once you finish with that staff, you should be more then capable of handling a mend staff. Use them to heal the injuries that take more then one use for the heal, while still keeping a heal for minor injuries. After awhile, you won't need the mend staves as much and can use that heal staff for more serious injuries."

"Oh..." Mist said after a moment, letting the information sink. She gave the mage a smile and nodded in understanding. "Okay. Thanks, that would be great then."

"Mmm." Soren responded, still focusing on the inventory order. There were more weapons and healing materials then before, hopefully they would be able to pay for them or else they would need to be severely under equipped for the next few missions.

Soren looked up form his work when he heard Mist giggle. He raised an eyebrow in question as he stared at her.

"Well," She beamed, giving him another smile. "I better get going and leave you to your work. See you in the morning bright and early, Soren. And thanks again!" With that, she closed the door behind and was out of sight.

Soren sighed once again, looking back at his papers. He had to add little girls to the list of people he couldn't possibly understand.

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Senea: Can you tell this was mostly written at 2 in the morning with no one editing it? Yeah that's the way I felt...and how it was actually done XD Also, I have ALWAYS wanted to right that part of the game cause I am such a geek! It was on my computer forever though I just couldn't get through afterwards... ANyways, thank you to the people who are stilll reading this and please review even to yell at me. I need a good kick in the pants for this. The other stories are getting done as well so please be patient I haven't abandoned you!!

Review please!


	7. Chapter 7

Senea; Wow! Over 2000 hits and almost 40 reviews! YAY! I'm so happy that so many people are taking an interest in this story. Hopefully I'm not boring any one when I repeat things in the game. But thanks to all those people who have read this story, and a special thanks to those who took the time to review. I feel special.

On another note, two people asked me on pairings and I have to say that I don't really do anything with romance. Sometimes it's just there for the sake of the story but other then that, I don't write on it. I don't like romance is the reason why. I don't mind it but I just perfer stories that are more adventurous and more with characters then just simply mushy stuff. In my opnion any ways.

Ahem, now without further ado, here's the next chapter!

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"Arg! When can we get out of this heat?!" Boyd demanded, wiping his forehead with his arm.

"For yet another time, Boyd, I will say it: we will get out of it soon!" Ike sighed, frustrated with the others attitude. He turned to Soren who was walking slightly behind him. "Any idea how much longer?" he asked, hoping to get the fighter to quiet down.

Without even looking at the map, the prince nodded. "Tomorrow we will be out of the forest and further into Crimea. Then, it would be only a couple of days before we reach Port Toha." he stated, moving the tome he was carrying more comfortably in the crook of his arm.

"My, my, you certainly have your way with directions and distances, don't you Soren?" Ranulf grinned at the mage playfully, a small twinkle in his eye. "We have our own little multi-purpose map! With magic and attitude!"

Soren glared at the man, trying his best to ignore the blue cat and failing. He was way too happy and peppy for his own good, no matter how skilled of a fighter he was, he didn't like the laguz.

"Would there be much danger before and when we reach the port?" Elincia piqued up, walking closer to Ike. Much to Geoffrey's displeasure, the princess had insisted upon walking and not riding on his horse. Soren found it slightly annoying as well for the girl to be walking around and joining every conversation that occurred. He almost wished he had killed her when they first met, even if it would have meant his own.

Ike shrugged at the question. "I'm not sure, I don't really think Daein would've gone this far and done much damage to the countryside as they would've done with the larger cities."

Soren almost snorted at the answer. The plan that he had made for the army made sure that the country side would be conquered as much as the cities were. In fact, many places they were going to go by would already be under Daein control. If they had done things right.

Before Soren could get his opinion across, Ranulf once again spoke up, going slightly more towards the west. "Hey, Ike! Hold up a moment." He called, fidgeting slightly.

Ike stopped and looked over at the cat, everyone stopped shortly afterwards. All awaiting what Ranulf wanted with the group.

"You know," he continued thoughtfully. "I was thinking...since this castle is on the way, we should probably stop by.

Faintly in the distance, a figure that looked like a castle was looming over. Although it looked fairly old and worn out, it still held to its duty.

Ike looked at the castle then back to Ranulf, he looked almost impatient and confused by the delay. "Um...really? Why? Is there something special about this place?"

Ranulf gave the commander a play full grin. "Why yes! There is!" He exclaimed happily. He turned slightly and moved his arm so that it was showing off the castle as if it were a prize. "This is Canteus Castle! Daein seized it early on in the war. Now, it serves as a camp for prisoners. I've even heard there are a number of Crimean retainers being held captive in the dungeon beneath the castle."

Both Elincia and Geoffrey looked surprised. "What?! Are you certain?" she asked, hope evident in her voice.

Ranulf made a face of mock pouting. "Princess, I'm hurt! Of course my information is reliable."

Ike turned back to Soren. "Have you heard of something to that effect, Soren?"

Soren nodded. "When I was still with the army they were already using it as a prisoner of war camp. Many Crimean soldiers and possibly even civilians are in there. Of that there is little doubt." He had made that arrangement months before the war had even started, though he wasn't willing to voice that piece of fact to anyone.

Geoffrey frowned at him, as if sensing the mage had something to do with it. "Are you saying that not only soldiers but people who have done no fighting are being held like prisoners in their own land?"

Soren shrugged offhandedly. "Technically, the Crimeans no longer own this land. It has already been conquered so they hold no warrant over what is no longer theirs. The Daeins have every right now to confiscate land and arrest those who do not co-operate." He explained bluntly, staring at the Crimean knight with a bored look on his face.

Geoffrey glared angrily towards the mage at those words. "How dare you say such a thing. As long as Princess Crimea is alive--"

"Then what?" Soren snapped, frowning at him as well. "She's a princess to a dead country, nothing more. If she wasn't, then we should be able to walk freely here and not cower at the slightest noise for fear of discovery. Merely believing that none of this has happend, and will turn out for the better, makes you a fool for not even considering that we may not be able to do anything about it!"

"Soren! Geoffrey! That's enough!" Ike shouted, putting his hand between them to make sure they wouldn't start anything. Elincia as well went to the knight's side to make sure that he wouldn't try to skewer the mage.

Ranulf coughed as the silence through the mercenaries thickened after several moments. Mist and Rolf jumped at the noise while everyone turned to look at the cat once again.

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely quarrel." He chirped, happily as ever, though there was some force to it. "But perhaps we should try out this castle? Who knows what we would find."

"If we can rescue some Crimean soldiers..." Titania concluded, trying to bring back the topic at hand. "They might decide to join us. That would be quite a boon, would it not?"

Ike finally lowered his arm, glanced quickly at the two, before walking over to Ranulf and Titania. "Yes, it would. I think it's worth the risk." He turned towards the rest of the mercenaries. "Everyone, suit up. We're here to rescue and cause some chaos for the Daein army."

"We shouldn't take any more people then absolutely necessary, Commander." Titania advised. "The castle isn't all that large so some should stay here and help guard Princess Elincia and the caravan."

Ike nodded in understanding. "Alright. Geoffrey, Lethe, Mia, Ilyana and you Titania, stay here. The rest of us will go into the castle."

Everyong nodded to the orders and they got ready to infiltrate the castle. Soren took one last look at the Crimean princess and her knight, who glared at him still, and walked towards the castle. He was sure to get another lecture out of Ike by the time they finished fighting. And, by the looks of Geoffrey, he was already receiving one from both Elincia and Titania.

* * *

Soren had forgotten what a nuisance fighting armored units was. Although Danomill was not entirely that strong, he had many myrmidons around him so that the mage couldn't get close enough to ignite him. And in such a close quarter with other units, he would get quickly lanced through if someone else didn't come to his aid.

Volke, the thief that had just been recruited, finally opened the last of the prisoner cells and quickly came towards an unknowing archer and took him down just as quickly. Beside him, Mordecai was just finishing off another armoured lance wielder and getting ready to pounce onto the man that was blocking there escape.

Soren took his attention back towards the general that kept believing that the mercenaries were losing and were going to be executed. He had met Danomill only once when they had just set out for the war so it was quite unlikely he would recognize the mage. He approached the man as he opened his fire tome and began chanting.

"_Spirits of ravenous flame, blaze through this world and sate your fiery craving._" he finished before the man even turned away his attention from Boyd. The flames struke him and he heard the general scream. Boyd took the final blow and managed to pick up something that the man had been carrying.

"Everyone! This way!" He turned and saw Ike at the exit of the castle, leading everyone towards it. The newly freed prisoners went first and then went the rest of the mercenaries, finally accomplishing in recruiting new members and helping Crimea slowly return to what she once was.

* * *

As Ike showed the princess and Geoffrey the prisoners, creating a happy reunion with one of the knights, Soren busied himself with looking through his supplies. He had just finished off his last fire tome and even his newly accuired wind tome was beginning to wear down. He had done so much fighting in the last few missions that required too much use of his tomes, he couldn't keep up this pace even if he wanted to.

"Are you in a predicament, young mage?" Soren snapped his attention away from his bag and looked up to see one of the freed prisoners looking at him oddly, a serene smile on his face. It was the monk that was in the first cell they had opened.

"Excuse me?" Soren asked, giving him a slight frown. He felt something form in the pit of his stomach. Something told him not to trust the man. There was something...odd about him, something wasn't right.

The man tilted his head slightly to the side, his smile never wavering. "It appears you are low on tomes." he stated neutrally.

The mage grunted in response, trying to dismiss the monk. The feeling he got from this man was making him on edge, he felt as if he had seen him somewhere before, and it was unnerving when he looked at him.

The monk seemed to pay no attention to the attitude of the mage as he placed a hand within his robes to reappear with a wind tome. "I believe this will help you better during your travels. It is better then those simple ones you have been using."

Soren glanced at the tome and took it. "An Elwind tome..." he muttered, more to himself than to the monk. He had been wanting to use these but with the budget so tight he wasn't going to buy them for a awhile. Even if they had gotten more gold from the Gallian king.

The monk nodded. "Yes, hopefully you use it to the fullest extent. Although..." he added. "It would be hard for you not to, am I correct?"

"Huh?" He looked back to the monk and frowned in thought, trying to find a hidden meaning in those words.

He merely shook his head lightly, closing his eyes. "Pay it no mind." he said, opening his eyes. "My name is Sephiran. And I'm sure we will meet again, young mage. Once we do, we may be able to talk further." The monk, Sephiran, gave the mage a small respectful bow and excused himself, walking over to Ike and the other prisoners to talk to them.

The prince continued to watch Sephiran as he talked with the commander, his frown increasing as the feeling he had still twisted itself inside his stomach. That man was familiar to him. Not only that, but something felt wrong with him, like he was some sort of stasis. It felt some what like the feeling he had gotten from the Black Knight but felt different all together as well.

He sighed, frustrated with his confused thoughts. Rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers, Soren concluded he was just tired from the battle and needed rest to think clearly of the situation.

"You!" Soren's arm twitched as his rest time was going to be coming later, much later. He glanced over to see a knight clad in red walking brusquely over towards him with an angred look on his face. The mage inwardly rolled his eyes at the knight. He remembered that the knight had been at the battle where he had tried to kill the princess. This was going to be interesting.

"Can I help you?" He asked disdainfully, raising one of his eyebrows in question.

"You were the dastardly devil that had tried to murder our beloved Princess Crimea!" The man announced over zealously, pointing an accusing finger at the mage. "I, Crimean Royal Knight, Fifth Platoon Captain Kieran will not stand for having such filth around our princess! No matter what kind of poisonous words you have said to brainwash them!"

"You have got to be kidding me..." Soren muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes at the knight. Were all Crimean knights this idiotic?

"What is going on here?" The two turned as Ike spoke. He walked over to them, Ranulf and Titania close by, his hand on the hilt of his sword and his eyes never leaving the knight or the mage. "Kieran, are you trying to fight one of your fellow comrades in arms?"

"Ha!" Kieran barked out. "How would he be my comrade in arms if he is the enemy?"

Ike sighed, pushing his hand onto his head as if he had a headache, and Soren couldn't blame him. This man was a bit too much. "Kieran, the princess herself said that Soren here could join if he wished, since he has, he is no longer affiliated with Daein. In other words, he is part of our group and should not be attacked just because of what he had done when he was in the Daein army. Am I making myself clear?" The commander frowned at Kieran, ordering him to stand down.

The knight nodded. "Yes sir." He turned to look and Soren and gave him a nod as well. "I, Crimean Royal Knight, Fifth Platoon Captain Kieran, apologize for my behaviour and hope, in turn, you are of some service to Crimea." With that, he turned and left, walking towards Geoffrey and Elincia.

Ranulf chuckled. "Well, well, well. Look how many friends your making in Crimea, Soren. You're becoming quite popular."

Soren didn't bother to give the cat a response.

* * *

Senea: Yay another chapter completed! Since Geoffrey and Elincia are here now, Ihave to include them in more, hence the random arguement thing. Much of this was just for the sake of character interaction and not so much plot...except for Sephiran. But if anyone can figure out what was with and what will become of that kudos to you! Much of it was random I admit but I had some fun writing it so there. Volke might be seen more of later on but maybe not, and that might be it for the other recruits, as much as I like them...well, Nephenee anyways.

The chant that Soren did I made up. All of the spells in my stories are ones I've made since there really isn't any one translation or anything to base it off of. They will continue in my stories too, I might add the ones I've made so far to my profile, we'll see. Was it to out there or did it suit it? I'm not sure...

Anyways. Thanks again for the continued support of the readers and te reviewers and hopefully this story can keep going!

Please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Senea: I'm back again! This would have gone up sooner bu work decided that I will be working full time so now I'm up to 30 hours a week and the days off I do have my mom forces me to clean out the back room. Then she makes me have garage where she keeps all the money...

Enough about how badly I want to move out and win the lottery and enjoy this next chapter of slight randomness and late night writing. Can you see where there are random cuts in the story?

Also, for those of you who have reviewed. I haven't really had that much time to reply to them but know that I will get to it...probably if you sen one this chapter as well, everything will be answered. Thanks goes to ryoku1 though for such a big, lovely review, and to SoS too. You both helped me! (Flinch-Hayward you are amazing too and I love your stories!) Everyone else as well, I will get to it to write them personally just haven't had any good time to get started. Sorry

Disclaimer: This story was not written by someone who is important enough to own something so cool

* * *

Soren jotted down the last piece of information he needed to complete his report and nodded to himself. With that finally finished from the last battle, he decided it would be best to show the commander now then when they were on the boat where it would be too hectic for a while to get it actually done. Or anything else for that matter.

The mage looked just down the road and saw the large body of water they were going to cross and he couldn't help but stop and stare at the blue surface. Daein, in terms of waterbeds, had hardly any. And none that he had seen could compare to the ocean they were going to soon be on.

Shaking his head of such trivial thoughts, he continued his walk to find Ike and give him the report. How hard is it to find someone in such a small village?

"Excuse me." He turned, half expecting someone from the mercenary group to be addressing him, but found a man with silver hair down to his shoulders and a killing edge blade resting at his side.

"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow in question, slightly annoyed by the fact that he was being detained by a complete stranger.

"Sorry to bother you, but would you mind telling me where the inn is? I seem to have gotten lost." The man explained somewhat cheerfully. He rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

Soren nodded mutely, turning around to where he had just come from. "It's at the corner of this street." he stated, pointing towards where the large building was.

"Ah, yes." The swordsman said, slapping his head with his hand. "I should really know this by now..." His attention went back to the mage and he smiled. "Thanks, kid. You've been a great help." And with that, he left.

Soren felt his eye twitch at the mentioning of him being a child, his hand forming into a small loose fist. Did he look that much younger than he was? Soren sighed, calming himself. He didn't care if he looked younger for his age, just as long as people didn't mention it.

With the distraction gone, he continued on his search for Ike and found him as soon as he turned the corner. He was, to the prince's surprise, with no one and took the full opportunity into talking with him.

"Commander." He noticed the swordsman turn and smile at him as he approached, he nodding his greeting.

"Soren, don't call me that." Ike said, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Just call me Ike, alright? It still sounds to weird, especially coming from you."

Soren raised an eyebrow but didn't question the comment any further. "Here's my report on the last battle we had." He stated, giving the commander the parchment in his hand.

Ike took it and began to read it, nodding as he did so. "Four new recruits, good amount of money...Ah! Rolf was the one who did the best? Remind me to give him something..."

The mage nodded, noting it already in his head. "There were no deaths or injuries beyond our capabilities to heal. Everyone performed exceedingly well." He explained blankly.

Ike nodded a few more times before handing back the parchment to his staff officer. "I can't thank you enough for doing this, Soren. It really helps with the workload."

Soren shrugged. "Not at all. Now, by your leave I will excuse myself." He turned to leave but felt a hand on his shoulder and stopped.

"Hold it. I'm not letting you off that easily." Ike said, smiling a little. "how about you stay a little and chat?"

Soren gave him a curious look, frowning slightly. "You really are a strange commander..." he muttered.

Ike looked confused. "What's that suppose to mean?"

He shook his head, dismissing his thoughts on the matter. "It's nothing...What did you have in mind to talk about?"

"Ah! My lord Ike..."

Both of them turned to see the princess wandering over to them, a small smile on her face.

"Princess!" Ike jumped off of the fence, panic rising in his voice. "Why are you here all by yourself? That's not very safe."

Her smile disappeared. "I was looking at the town." she explained. "I'm unfamiliar with the world outside the imperial villa where I was raised. This is the first time I've been able to see how other people live."

Soren looked at the meek princess. Just like when they had first met, she really seem to have no clue about anything. He wan't really one to talk, he was trying to get used to not being surrounded by Daein soldiers when he's in a town. He supposed he had much more in common with the princess then he wanted to admit. Still, he wouldn't exactly mention it.

He excused himself from the two and decided to go wander back to where everyone else was and read a tome. He still didn't take well with the princess, with or without her bodyguard. She was quite rude a lot of the time, even without meaning to and it got on his nerves. So he left them to their own devices.

"Ah, Soren." The mage looked around and found a very large cloak walking his way. Realizing that it was actually Mordecai, he stopped.

"Mordecai." He greeted blankly, giving the large laguz a annoyed glare. "What can I do for you?"

"Mordecai wanted to give this to Soren." He shuffled through his cloak and came out with a small pouch.

"A vulnerary?" Soren looked from the medicine to the tiger.

Mordecai nodded. "Grr..Soren had used all of his in last mission. Mordecai had some extra and wanted...Grr...Mmmm..."

"...To give it to me?" Soren finished, slightly surprised by the gesture.

He nodded. "Yes...Words sometimes escape me. Here." He said, handing the mage the vulnerary.

"Ah, thank...you..." Soren said, giving the medicine an odd look, one that he wanted to give the laguz as well.

"Grr...You are welcome." He smiled, showing off his sharp teeth.

Silence fell and Soren felt himself becoming more uncomfortable as Mordecai didn't leave, or looked like he was. After their...argument, The two of them, including Lethe, had made odd amends with one another and, since then, the two laguz had left the mage alone and vice versa unless in battle. Now it seemed as if the tiger wanted to talk with him and, once again, he didn't know what to say. Luckily, he didn't have to think of anything when a huge ruckus began, drawing both the laguz and prince to it.

"Attention citizens!" Soren turned his attention towards the entrance of the town, where there was now a small army of Daein troops there. He listened as they said the entire town was under lock-down. The mage frowned, walking over towards Ike. They needed a plan now that the ships were no longer allowed to sail.

Titania had similar thoughts as Soren, as she walked over to the commander and the princess. "Ike... Daein troops have--"

"I know." Ike said, looking at the Daein soldiers with worry. He shook his head, looking back at Titania and Soren. "All we can do is move toward the docks and try not to be discovered."

"That's odd..." Soren mumbled, frowning in thought as he ran through things in his mind.

The two turned towards the prince. "What's odd, Soren?" Ike asked.

Soren looked at the commander. "If I remember correctly, the takeover plans we had, had not scheduled this town so early for subjugation...It was only for until much later, when the majority of the surrounding area was already under control..."

"We might have been the ones who caused the sudden change in their plans." Ranulf said, appearing right beside the mage.

"Ranulf!" Ike called, looking rather relived that the laguz was fine. "How are things on your end?"

Ranulf nodded. "Everything's set. All you need to do is sneak down to the harbor where you'll meet a man by the name of Nasir. I've explained your situation to him, and he's willing to help. He'll take care of everything and deliver you to Begnion."

A woman came rushing out of one of the houses just then and bashed into the cat laguz, his cloak falling off of his head.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going..."

Ranulf smiled and gave a nod of his head. "No, Pardon me--"

The womans face turned from embarrassment to horror as she saw the years. "Ah! Eeeeeeek! Su-Sub-human!!"

"Blast!"

More villagers appeared at the cry that there was a beast in their town. They began to gang up on Ranulf as quickly as they had come. Soren watched rather in shock at such behavior from the group. He had believed that Crimeans supported the laguz as much as these mercenaries had. It seemed he was proven wrong.

"Stop! Get out of my way! Keep your hands off him!" Ike ran over to the group to stop them, only getting a verbal lashing from the townspeople. Eventuall, they made the Daeins get involved as well, which confused Soren even more. They would sell them out, just to look in favor of Daein. He wasn't sure how much of fools they were, but they would soon realize no matter what they did, Daein would not look kindly on this town or its citizens.

"Titania! Soren! Get everyone together! We're getting out of here!" Ike's command ran through the large square and caught many of the groups attention. It wasn't before long that everyone was assembled and ready to go.

"Everyone, move out for the harbor!" Ike ordered, raising his sword in the air. "Try to avoid conflict with the local vigilante group if you can. Let's go!"

After a few moments into the fight, Soren felt a lump in his throat as once again a familiar aura came into the village. The same one he felt the night that Griel had died. He spun his head around to stare at the lone house standing around the water. As he turned he noticed that a knight was riding towards the house, going inside it as well. This wasn't good.

"Soren. What's wrong?" Soren jumped and turned to find Rhys looking at him worriedly.

He shook his head. "N-nothing. Keep your focus, Boyd needs some healing..." He stated, trying to keep the calm in his voice. Why would the Black Knight be here? Was he going to attack them? This was definitely not good.

He shook his head and moved away from the house as the group went farther into the village towards the docks. He wondered where Mordecai had gone off to and realized the tiger had been fending off the vigilantes that were going to surround them and seemed to be still fighting them. He gave one last look where the laguz had gone and saw the man that had asked for directions. He shrugged, not caring that the man died or not, and casted another spell towards a mounted unit that had charged at Nephenee. She nodded her head in thanks and continued onwards, helping Boyd with the armored man.

They had managed to get half way to the docks when Soren heard a wyvern cry. Half of the group turned and noticed that the flyers were joining the fray. The mage looked and saw that among them were two people he was more then familiar with. Still on the bridge was Haar, even from here he could tell that the man was asleep. He had met him dozen of times and had even gone with him on a few missions, though he didn't know his title, and if he did he never mentioned it.

The other was almost worse meeting her. Jill was General Shiharam's daughter, a man that he knew to well. He, unlike Haar and his daughter, knew he was the prince and he had great respect for the wyvern rider. He didn't exactly want to kill his daughter, they met a number of times during laguz hunting and seemed decent enough, if not slightly high-strung.

"Damn, reinforcements!" Boyd cursed, resting his axe on his shoulder. "How many more Daein do we have to kill before they get the point?"

Soren raised his eyebrows at the fight but didn't want to encourage the man's comments. "Leave them be." he stated, getting a couple of looks from his allies. "As long as we don't go into their line of fighting, they should leave us alone. We can't afford to divide our team to deal with them any how."

Boyd didn't look to convinced but he turned and continued to fight to the docks, as all the others did. Ike, however stopped and looked again towards the entrance of the town. Soren was about to explain to the swordsman again when he felt a shift as well.

"Ah!" Ike started, staring off where they had just come from. "It's him!"

Soren quickly glanced over to where the commander was looking and felt his stomach chrun. He had really hoped what he felt before was his imagination but that wasn't the case it seemed. The Black Knight emerged from a building, his body turned towards the group. The prince felt the knight's eye on him and he glared, his arm went to where the knight had stabbed him, clenching his robe in the process. If Daein didn't know he was still alive, they did now.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Ike beginning to rush where the Black Knight was, his sword already raised for an attack.

"Ike!" As fast as he could, Soren reached out and manage to grab the rangers cloak before he got to far. He looked back at the mage and glared at him.

"Soren, let me go!" He ordered, trying to get Soren to let go of his cloak. The mage quickly moved on to holding his arm back, giving him a glare as well.

"Ike, you are not even going to think about it!" Soren snapped, his hand clenching onto Ike's arm even more. "Do you have any idea how strong that man is?"

"Of course I do! He killed my father! And now--"

"Exactly!" Soren cut him off. "That was not even two weeks ago, and you think you're strong enough now to try and kill him? Did your father really raise such a foolish son?"

Ike growled at him but made no other attempt to correct the prince. Soren continued, trying to reason with the commander. "Look, even if you did go there, that will give the wyverns more then enough reason to come by and take everyone else out. We can't afford to be surrounded by our enemy when we need to get on that ship as soon as possible. Would you risk all that just because of your decision to attack one of the Four Riders?"

Ike glared at the mage for a long moment, looking as if he was going to go anyways. He abrutly shook his arm, making Soren release his grip and walked off briskly towards where everyone else had gone, they were already in the harbour, leaving the prince behind.

Soren watched as he went, waiting a while before he too continued to the harbour and onto the ship. Hopefully Ike would realize what a mistake he was going to make and not hate him too much over it.

* * *

Senea: Attention Duelists!! (watching too much abridged XD)

Soren has good eyesight and Zihark is apparently bad at directions XP And come on, when Ike says that line it's as if they WANT you to attack him. Seriously. Sometimes the people who get Zihark get caught between him and the BK kills them with one swing. I cry and restart....with some swearing in there too. Well, it's mostly swearing...Ahem.

Has anyone else noticed that when people trying to talk about Soren in the game are usually directed towards a different topic? Elincia does this once or twice, the most actually, and that always pissed me off, she's so ARG! Yes...well...cough....

Mordecai is hard to write...but way before I started typing this and the idea was coming out, I had wanted Soren to be friends with Mordecai...There was some good reason why but I can't remember. Still, it goes with the story. Later on I think. Some people have to give a shit about Soren! This part had to come in before the boat but none of it seemed right at the time...so welcome awkward conversations that look like they don't belong wheeee! Who hasn't had one of those? I've had tons! (Not a people person)

Thanks for reading this decent sized chapter of only one...chapter...yeah. And possibly this mild rant of an authors note...Review please, if you think you can spare a moment of your time and brighten a girls day.

Damn it and now I broke my key board...stupid crums!!!! stupid u key!!


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